''Pontalba'' is an opera in two acts composed by

Thea Musgrave Thea Musgrave CBE (born 27 May 1928) is a Scottish composer of opera and classical music. She has lived in the United States since 1972. Biography Born in Barnton, Edinburgh, Musgrave was educated at Moreton Hall School, a boarding independ ...

. Musgrave also wrote the libretto which is loosely based on the life of

Micaela Almonester, Baroness de Pontalba Micaela Leonarda Antonia de Almonester Rojas y de la Ronde, Baroness de Pontalba (November 6, 1795"Jackson Square". ''Louisiana Historical Quarterly''. Henry Renshaw.- April 20, 1874) was a wealthy New Orleans-born Creole aristocrat, businesswoma ...

, a prominent figure in 19th-century

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

. The opera was commissioned by

New Orleans Opera Opera has long been part of the musical culture of New Orleans, Louisiana. Operas have regularly been performed in the city since the 1790s, and since the early 19th century, New Orleans has had a resident company regularly performing opera in ad ...

to celebrate the two hundredth anniversary of the

Louisiana Purchase The Louisiana Purchase (french: Vente de la Louisiane, translation=Sale of Louisiana) was the acquisition of the territory of Louisiana by the United States from the French First Republic in 1803. In return for fifteen million dollars, or app ...

. It premiered on 2 October 2003 at the

Mahalia Jackson Theater The Mahalia Jackson Theater of the Performing Arts is a theater located in Louis Armstrong Park in New Orleans, Louisiana. It was named after gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, who was born in New Orleans. The theater reopened in January 2009, after ...

in New Orleans conducted by Robert Lyall with Yali-Marie Williams in the title role.

Background and performance history

In 2001

commissioned Thea Musgrave to compose a new opera for the 2003 celebrations of the Louisiana Purchase bicentennial. On the suggestion of the company's General Director Robert Lyall, Musgrave chose

as her subject. Born in New Orleans and a wealthy heiress in her own right, Micaela Almonester married her mentally unstable French cousin, Célestin de Pontalba in 1811 and eventually moved to France where she became a virtual prisoner at the de Pontalba chateau near Senlis. In 1834, having failed to gain possession of Almonester's inheritance, her father-in-law shot her four times at point-blank range with a pair of duelling pistols and then committed suicide. She survived the attack, eventually obtained a legal separation from her husband and returned to New Orleans in 1848 where she stayed until 1851. During her time there she became a central figure in the city's intellectual, social, and commercial life. As with most of her operas, Musgrave herself wrote the libretto (originally called ''The Pontalba Affair''), loosely basing it on ''Intimate Enemies'', Christina Vella's 1997 biography of Micaela Almonester. Musgrave added some fictional characters and took several liberties with the historical facts, most notably making Almonester 10 years older so that her marriage to Celestin de Pontalba would take place around the time of the Louisiana Purchase. According to the British magazine ''

Opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...

'', New Orleans Opera ended up spending a million dollars on the ''Pontalba'' project. In the face of rising costs the company was forced to cancel the performances of ''

The Tales of Hoffmann ''The Tales of Hoffmann'' (French: ) is an by Jacques Offenbach. The French libretto was written by Jules Barbier, based on three short stories by E. T. A. Hoffmann, who is the protagonist of the story. It was Offenbach's final work; he died i ...

'', its only other planned production for the 2003 Autumn season.Belsom, Jack (February 2004)
"New Orleans
''

'', p. 78. Retrieved 5 March 2015. Excerpts from the score were previewed in New York City in May 2003 in a concert celebrating Musgrave's 75th birthday. The complete opera premiered on 2 October 2003 at the

in New Orleans. The production was conducted by Robert Lyall and directed by Jay Lesenger with the sets designed by Erhard Rom and the lighting by Dan Darnutzer. ''Pontalba'' had two more performances on 4 and 5 October 2003.Holland, Bernard (7 October 2003)
"New Orleans Celebrates Itself Quite Sensibly"
''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''. Retrieved 5 March 2015. It has not received any further performances since that time.

Roles

References

External links

*Musgrave, Thea (2003)
''Pontalba'': Detailed synopsis and scoring details

Novello & Co Wise Music Group is a global music publisher, with headquarters in Berners Street, London. In February 2020, Wise Music Group changed its name from The Music Sales Group. In 2014 Wise Music Group (as The Music Sales Group) acquired French cla ...

. *Sands, Brian (2003)
"''Pontalba'' at the Mahalia Jackson Theater for the Performing Arts"
(review and production photos). ''Ambush Magazine'', Volume 21, Issue 21 {{Thea Musgrave Operas 2003 operas English-language operas Operas by Thea Musgrave Operas set in the 19th century Cultural depictions of American women Operas based on real people Operas set in the United States